Doctors were surprised to find 27 contact lenses in the eye of a woman who was scheduled to undergo cataract surgery.

Twenty-Seven Contact Lenses Stuck In One Eye

In November last year, the 67-year-old woman was supposed to have routine eye surgery. When the operation started though, specialist trainee ophthalmologist Rupal Morjaria and colleagues extracted a "bluish foreign body" from the woman's eye.

It turned out to be a mass of 17 contact lenses stuck together. The doctors at Solihull Hospital, southeast of Birmingham in the UK, eventually found another set of 10 contacts, which brings a total of 27 contact lenses in one eye.

The discovery of the lenses surprised the doctors in that the patient did not complain of any irritation. She simply thought that her eye problem was caused by old age and dry eyes. The woman only complained about cataracts albeit she has been wearing monthly disposable contact lenses for about 35 years. She does not also regularly see an eye doctor and does not have an idea that there were many contacts in her eye.

The doctors said that the patient did not report any symptoms associated with the contact lenses during her pre-operative assessment. Despite the number of contacts stuck in her eye, the patient did not also show symptoms. Patients would typically experience redness and significant discomfort.

Dangers Of Using Contact Lenses Without Getting Regular Eye Exams

Morjaria and colleagues reported the case in the July 5 issue of The British Medical Journal in a bid to raise awareness since they used to think that it was not possible for the eye to retain so many contact lenses without showing any symptom.

With the advent of online shopping, people also find it easier to buy contact lenses and they become lax when it comes to getting regular checkups. Patients who use contact lenses should not go long periods without getting eye exams. Morjaria said that sans appropriate monitoring, people who use contact lenses may suffer from serious eye infections that can lead to loss of vision.

Patient's Cataract Surgery Postponed

The doctors had to postpone the planned surgery so the bacteria that had accumulated in the woman's eye would be cleared.

"Because she had harbored these contact lenses in her eye for an unknown length of time, if we had operated she would have had a lot of bacteria around her conjunctiva," Morjaria said.